With the White House in disarray and the FBI compromised, the fate of the free world rests in the sweaty palms of Chloe O’Brien (Mary Lynn Rajskub) on “24” (8 p.m., Fox).

I’m sure I wasn’t the only viewer who was let down last week by the lack of personal friction and interaction between neurotic IT nerds Chloe and Janis (Janeane Garofalo). And who wasn’t worried about the strong hints that Janis was the traitor within the agency? This would mark her greatest act of treachery since the Garofalo marionette sold out in “Team America.”

While I’m still biting my nails over this nail-biter, I can’t help feeling that it’s hitting all of the familiar beats from past seasons. A big crisis looms only to be averted and then give way to another catastrophic deadline even as a personal tragedy unfolds that simultaneously puts a human face on the looming danger and asks the question, “What is the value of one life when so many are at stake?” After watching many secondary characters perish (Edgar’s mother, Edgar, etc.), you have to worry about Dubaku’s (Hakeem Kae-Kazim) ex-girlfriend and her sister. Or is it the president’s husband (Colm Feore) we should fret about?

• “American Experience” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) presents “A Class Apart,” about a 1950s Supreme Court decision that ended the official segregation of Mexican-Americans in America’s Southwest. The film describes a world where not that long ago, white ranchers could murder Mexican-Americans with impunity and when the Texas State Restaurant Association distributed signs to its members reading “No Negroes, No Dogs and No Mexicans.”

Challenges to the status quo came when returning World War II veterans began to demand equal rights and an end to discrimination. “Apart” follows a band of Latino lawyers, veterans all, who took a relatively obscure case all the way to the Supreme Court and sparked the landmark Hernandez v. Texas decision.

• “Battle for Tobacco Road” (8 p.m., HBO) chronicles the basketball rivalry between Duke and North Carolina that has been going on since the 1920s and has only increased in intensity over the past 25 years.

• “After the Storm: Lessons from the Northern Edge” (8 p.m., Documentary Channel) looks at changes in the fishing industry in New Bedford, Mass.

Tonight’s other highlights

• A spy in the house of love on “Chuck” (7 p.m., NBC).

• A teen’s gender-identity problem may prove fatal on “House” (7 p.m., Fox).

• Matt questions Noah on “Heroes” (8 p.m., NBC).

• Wedding bells loom on “The Closer” (8 p.m., TNT).

• Allison wakes up on a highway to oblivion on “Medium” (9 p.m., NBC).

Cult choice

An impish Walter Huston, a bewitching Simone Simon and a Bernard Herrmann score are highlights of the wonderful 1941 adaptation of the Stephen Vincent Benet story “The Devil and Daniel Webster” (7 p.m., TCM).

Series notes

The women tell all on “The Bachelor” (7 p.m., ABC) … Bart’s will is read on “Gossip Girl” (7 p.m., CW) … Ted inspires intervention on “How I Met Your Mother” (7:30 p.m., CBS) … Charlie woos a receptionist on “Two and a Half Men” (8 p.m., CBS) … News spreads on “One Tree Hill” (8 p.m., CW) … Flirting at the video store on “The New Adventures of Old Christine” (9:30 p.m., CBS) … Delko exposed on “CSI: Miami” (9 p.m., CBS).